Mary's Thrifty Chic

Upcycling thrift shop clothing/sewing

Sewing

Jean Scrap Pillows

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Hello Everyone!

Here is a quick little offering for you. Never throw away the scraps from your blue jeans. They can come in handy. When my couch needed a refresh I refused to pay the exorbitant prices for decorator pillows. I simply opened up my scrap stash and got to work. My son named the one on the left “Chaos” and the one on the right “Order.”

Let me know what you think! I will be back with another offering soon!

Happy Refashioning!

Mary, Thrifty Chic

Hat Upcycle Part 2

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Hello Everyone,

I have a very bad history with hats. You see, my family has very big heads! No, we aren’t full of ourselves, our heads are actually big according to hat manufacturers.

Just look at this: From Easter bonnets, to communion veils, and my graduation cap, NOTHING EVER FIT!

I am not looking down here. That bonnet was always dropping down on my face!
Do you see a pattern here?
It took about 12 bobby pins to get that hat onto my head!

This hat was purchased by my husband. He knows my history, so he bought the extra large, and as luck would have it, it was still too small. The hubby liked the hat because of the double M. It actually stand for Mammoth Mountain but ironically my maiden name initials were “MM” as well. The only bad thing was that it was too small!!

This hat was repeat of history as it popped off my head as well!

Step 1-Cut the back open the necessary amount

As you can see this is a large/ extra large

Step 2-Cut elastic to fit and pin

Step 3-Stitch in place

Stitch the elastic in place and topstitch the raw edges down
Ready for the sun and it pops off no more!

So there you have it! What are your hat fixes????

Let me know what you think and happy refashioning…

Mary, Thrifty Chic

Hat Upcycle Part 1

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Hello Everyone!

Have you ever had a hat that you really liked, but it did had some embroidery on it that you hated? In this episode of Mary’s Thrifty Chick, you will see how I conquered this problem.

This little black beanie came to my doorstep when my husband acquired it at a trade show. He was going to throw it away, but I really liked it with the exception being the advertising. It needed some fashionable help.

AFTER
My photographer has a real job now (my son). Here is a selfie of the finished product!

BEFORE
A piece of tapestry fabric was just what I needed to cover this embroidery and make this hat fashionable

Here you see it lightly glued, pinned in place, and ready to go!
A little blanket stitch around the edges with black embroidery floss made this hat a winner!

As always, I appreciate your feedback. Have you ever done anything like this? Let me know… My second hat refashion will be coming soon. Stay tuned!!!

Happy Refashioning!

Mary, Thrifty Chic

Recycled Denim Quilt

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Question? What does a refashionista do during a quarantine when she has a boatload of donated blue jeans in her stash? Answer: Make a quarantine quilt of course!

What you see here is the finished product of denim, blood, sweat, and tears. And I do mean that literally! There were times I cried out, “What have I gotten myself into?” But in the end, it was worth all of the work.


I should have kept count, but between the quilt and the rug I think there might be about 40 of recycled jeans and two printed denim jackets represented in this picture.
The pillows made from scraps also with the addition of some denim friendly
twill tape from my stash.

Before

This was my room before the makeover. You can’t see it, but the brown fabric is faded and the stripe side of the fabric was full of pills. It was overdue for a change!

Tutorial

The plan was to completely cover the old quilt. Functionally the old quilt was still good, but it was faded and worn. I must confess I did treat myself to new sheets. The reason for this was that I wanted to skip the dust ruffle so I purchased 2 new sets of sheets. This gave me 8 pillow cases and allowed me to use one fitted sheet to cover the box spring and one flat sheet for the back of the quilt. (Don’t worry recyclers! The old sheets will be put to good use.)

I harvested all of the strips from the jeans by getting the long strips from the front legs and the shorter strips from the back legs. I decided on a 3 1/2 cut width so the finished width was 3″ allowing for a 1/4″ seam.

Here are two jackets that were just perfect for the printed portion of my quilt. The strips from these pieces were much smaller so I used a lot less of them.

I layed out the basic raw pieces to make a plan but honestly I planned the quilt in sections as I went along. I couldn’t explain how my brain worked through this if I tried but at the end of all the harvesting, cutting, overlocking, and topstitching I ended up with …
This!
Here is a closer view.
The fun part was over and now comes the blood, sweat and tears…
I had to hand sew the old quilt to the back of the denim with carpet thread. After that I put right sides together and sewed on the backing leaving the bottom open to close later.
Sewing the backing on a queen size quilt was clumsy, awkward, and I worked up quite a sweat. Also turning that baby over right side out was like wrestling an alligator. I poked myself with pins millions of times in the process.

In conclusion, I have never worked harder on a sewing project in my life!
The rug beside the bed was made many months ago on another post if you are interested.
https://marysthriftychic.com/repurpose-jeans-into-home-decor/

I finished it 5 days ago and I am still sore and exhausted.! What do you all think?????

Have you ever made a quilt? Would you do it again? Once is enough for me but I am glad I can say that I did it well.

Stay safe everyone but talk to me…

Happy Refashioning,

Mary, Thrifty Chic

Kimono Robe

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Hi Everyone!

Where did the summer go? It flew by and now school has started and the second half of the year is upon me. I have been very busy and I want to share one of my big projects from this summer. Here is the finished picture of my new robe. I did have a summer robe, but I could never wear it because it was synthetic, and now that I am a woman of a certain age…it was way too hot!!! I needed a cotton robe I could wear without spontaneously combusting!! This was a made from scratch project but it qualifies as a Thrifty Chic original because the pattern came from my old robe and the new fabric was 2 tablecloths that were donated to me. It is totally reversible and quite a special piece.

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Tutorial

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This is a picture of my combustion causing robe all picked apart and ready for it’s new life as a pattern. I had two batik tablecloths that were beautiful but I never used them and had a vision that they would make great robes. The original plan was to keep one and give one as a gift.

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Once I made these two seperate robes I realized that they were just ordinary. I tried one on and it was clear that by itself it was just too flimsy and not special at all. After thinking about it for a few days it hit me that I had to put the robes together and make it reversible, and I am so glad I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here are the two robes sewn together at the sleeves and hems. Now the robe is ready for the neckline trim and the sash.

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I had to piece together the neckline,front facings and sash, but careful thought made it work out.

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I have my choice now. It can be red or blue! I know it is selfish but I am keeping this one for me.

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It was a lot of work but I am glad I took the time to make this robe reversible. It is now a piece that I will cherish and use with pride…without spontaneously combusting!!!

As always I want to know what you think!

Talk to me!

Mary
AKA:Thrifty Chic